Skyline senior captures state title

By Dennis Atwood -- sports@nvdaily.com

HARRISONBURG -- Using a full 360-degree spin, versus a half-spin, in the release windup, can make a big difference in the discus throw.

It made a huge difference for Skyline senior Ashley Rasmussen, who won the state title, with a toss of 117-5 on the first day of the Group AA Track and Field meet at Harrisonburg High School on Friday evening.

"It's a personal best," Rasmussen said. "I finished 13th last year and I didn't do a full spin, it was only a half, and now I'm a full."

Rasmussen hopes to attend Union College, in Barboursville, Ky., to study physical therapy.

"It's the first state championship, in any sport, for our school," Skyline coach Steve Burton said of the two-year-old facility. "Ashley made great improvement over last year. She really worked hard on developing that full spin."

The Millbrook Pioneers girls 4x800 relay team proved you don't have to have a lot of experience to compete successfully in a big-time meet.

With freshmen Karly Knechtel and Crystal Nelson in the final two slots, and juniors Tammy Cheung and Yeseñia Ruiz leading off, the group took fourth place with a time of 9:51.68, trailing Blacksburg's winning mark of 9:26.27.

It was a close race from the third-to-sixth place teams approaching the finish line.

"It was very crowded and I was very nervous," Nelson said. "I just knew I just had to push it the last 200, it was, like 'I gotta' go, gotta' go' and I did it. The pace was definitely faster than if I had been isolated."

"I'm the only one who's been at state before, and I told them, 'It doesn't matter about placing, because we might be in a fast heat, but there's going to be teams from the slow heat that can run just as good time-wise'," Cheung said. "So, our approach to this was just go out, run our best, and have fun. We kept getting better during the season and broke our school record at the regionals."

They also had the loudest cheering effort for their teammates heard in the infield, with the diminutive Cheung leading that morale-boosting activity.

"We do try and keep it nice and light-hearted," Pioneers coach Jeremy Wright said. "We like to have them in a good mood when they go out there. They bounce around and they're enthusiastic. It keeps the freshmen's heads in the game. Distance coach Greg West does a great job on making sure they're in the right frame of mind."

Sherando senior Lauren Carter fell short of her expectations in the high jump. With a third-best 5-4 on the books entering the meet, she was unable to do better than fifth. "My best was only 5-2," U.Va.-bound Carter said. "As you move up, it's literally just another inch for performance, but it's so mental, it's all mental.

"I just try to keep thinking, 'Oh, it's just the same thing I just jumped a few minutes ago,' but, mentally, you know it's higher, and it can mess you up. At 5-3 I was just jumping into the bar instead of up like I needed to do, and I don't know why."

In the boys 3,200-meter relay, James Wood finished 10th (8:22.70), and Sherando 11th (8:36.37), as Blacksburg also won that event with a time of 7:59.60.

The second day of the meet starts today at 9:30, with the few remaining field events and the bulk of the running events.